Broken Heart-shaped Gem
by RubyandSapphire
Summary: Steven makes a new friend, he actually seams really nice too. The only problem is his dad's a scientist on the hunt for the Crystal gems.
1. Chapter 1

Gemnapped.

Steven sat on the sand of the beach eating a sandwich. Lettuce, ham, mayonnaise, tomatoes and Swiss cheese on white bread crunching between his teeth. There was something missing though, something sweet missing.

"I need a doughnut with this!" Steven shouted ad started running over to the Big Doughnut while singing the training song. He accidentally forgot about the rest of the sandwich on the beach. But they made the world go round! Steven couldn't wait to have this doughnut, vanilla covered in chocolate on the top. Maybe he'd even get one covered in sprinkles if he saw any there with them. It would be delicious either way that he would get the doughnut.

The door opened with sound of a bell ringing as Lars and Sadie looked up from their customer. He turned too. The customer linked his eyes with Steven's. He had short brown hair and a short and shrimpy body. His clothes were overalls and a light blue dress shirt. Then he just turned back to the counter as Sadie gave him his bag of treats. He put his crumpled dollar bills on the counter in his place.

"You can keep the change." he said taking his bag and heading out the door. As the boy left out the door Steven walked up to the counter.

"I'll take a doughnut to go." he said pointing to the vanilla one cover in chocolate on the top. Sadie grabbed the doughnut and put it in a bag with a napkin at the bottom of it. Steven reached deeply into his pant's pocket for money to pay for his yummy pastry. He looked at his hand and counted the money before putting it down on the counter to actually get his yummy pastry.

The with bag was handed to him as he felt he could already taste the chocolate that was smothered on top of it. "Thanks." he smiled brightly just right before running out of the shop to find a nice bench to eat it on. He looked at everything just waiting to spot the perfect seat for his yummy treat.

"Hey Steven!" Jenny called out to her friend. Steven turned to say hi as he felt his body crash into another human. They both shouted as they fell with Steven on top of that kid from the shop. Steven saw that he had gotten a new item on the menu, a smoothie. Strawberry to be exact. Steven got off of him and looked as his now spilled smoothie, it was a sad loss.

"I'm so sorry!" he almost cried out. The mystery boy looked lat him oddly.

"C'mon dude it's just a smoothie." he regarded the tears in Steven's eyes. "Although it was my breakfast too." he looked down at his spilled drink, oh he meant meal. Yeah all he ate was a piece of toast, and this was his fruit or vegetable. He had even asked a bunch of questions about the strawberries that they were going to use in his smoothies.

They both got up and sat on the bench that was up against one of the shop. They both sat on the bench together beside each other. "You can have half of my doughnut." he said grabbing the doughnut and breaking it in half then handed it to the boy. The boy smiled then took it and took a small bite of it. Steven looked excitedly at him as he seamed to really enjoy the now shared by both of them while it was being chewed between his teeth.

"Mmmm, yummy. I don't get to have any stuff like this in my house." he said while chewing the doughnut. Steven smiled while eating his half as well as his new friend.

"My name's Steven by the way, what's yours?" a few crumbs shot out of his mouth as he asked his question to his friend. Meanwhile chocolate started melting and getting stuck on to both of their fingers.

"My name's James, Steven." he licked his lips from chocolate covering them. "And thanks for the half doughnut." he smiled at Steven. Then Steven got a good idea.

"Hey do you want to come over to my house James!" he asked excitingly. James smiled back at his question.

"Sure, my dad's in town for a day because he's a scientist and he got a report that weird was going on here, so I got all day here!" he said as they hoped off the bench and started walking to his house.

"That might be the crystal gems." Steven replied. They were the ones that kept beach city weird after all.

"What are the crystal gems?" James asked Steven excitedly.

"Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl protect the Earth from gem monsters, and sometimes I go on adventures with them since I'm a crystal gem too. I got my mom's gem, she had to give her physical form to have me though." he sighed talking about Rose. James looked at Steven frowning.

"Sorry about that Steven." James sighed. There was a moment of silence between the two young boys.

"It's okay. She's a part of me now!" he smiled still slightly saddened. He looked to see his house. "Hey look we're here!" he smiled. James looked agape at his amazing temple house.

"You live here!" he looked at Steven.

"You should see the inside!" he grabbed his hand and lead him to the stairs and into his large home. He had cleaned his room and everything before when he got up. Pearl had told him to cleaned his room last night, and there was no need to procrastinate. What luck too, he was having a friend over too!

"Woah, what's this!" he ran over to the crystal teleporter and examined it closely.

"That takes us to all our adventures!" suddenly it started glowing as James jumped back in the bright lights in his eyes. "The gems are back!" James looked at Steven. Then his mouth dropped as much as it could when he caught a glimpse of them.

"Oh Steven, who's your new friend?" Pearl asked him. James just starred at her as she gave him an odd look.

"Iaar hames." his mouth barely moved as he spoke to her.

"He's James." Steven translated.

"Hey man what's with the face!" Amethyst laughed looking at it. James pointed to Pearl.

"What's with her forehead, and what's up with your chest!?" he pointed to her gemstone. Amethyst scrunched her face up.

"They're our gems." Garnet looked way down at him while coming off the steps. She raised her hands to show off hers, they started to glow. "We are the crystal gems, G-"

"Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl, Steven told me about you!" he interrupted Garnet out of his own excitement. "You're Amethyst since you're purple right! And you're Pearl and Garnet." he said pointing to all of them in different order. He was right. The only reason he knew which was which was because he wanted to be an geologist and studied stuff like that, just ask his mom about her missing earrings.

"Steven where did you even find this kid?" asked Amethyst heading over to the fridge.

"I bumped into him and accidentally made him spill his smoothie." Steven explained to her. In her arms were a mix of foods and she was now heading for the cupboards to grab more. After getting all the supplies that she needed Amethyst dropped them all on the counter.

"You guys want a sandwich?" she poured mustard, ham, raw eggs, tomatoes, and other things onto her own as the two walked over to make one for themselves.

James decided on swiss cheese, turkey, ham, and lettuce on his while Steven made his usual sandwich for himself. Then James panicked when he saw that Amethyst about to eat hers.

"Don't, there's raw egg on that thing!" he shouted. She took a large bite out of it, chewed it, then swallowed. He looked like he was going to throw up. Amethyst laughed at his rather ridiculous facial expression. "You're gonna die, what's so funny!" he shouted waiting for something to happen to her.

"Gems can't die from food poisoning." Steven looked. James looked at her and raised an eyebrow.

"What else can you do!?" he asked Amethyst excitedly. She grinned as her gem glowed. She reached in and pulled out her trusty whip and flung the rope and whipped his sandwich out of his hands, and with no mayonnaise it fell apart completely. She laughed as he smiled from ear to ear at her awesome weapon.

"Do the other Gems have weapons like that too!" he shouted in excitement.

"Hey Garnet, Pearl come here! James wants to see your weapons!" the two came over to the island in response, Pearl gave a groan at the monstrosity of a sandwich that Amethyst had created. James looked at them with stars in his eyes. This was going to be super amazing!

"Please Stevens' moms, please!" he shook his fists while asking in excitement at just maybe seeing this. Pearl and Garnet looked at each other. Pearl smiled.

"Well I don't see a reason to say no." she shrugged. It might just be educational for this young boy. Steven and James looked as Pearl's gem glowed as she put her hands around it like she did for presentation, and the spear was summoned. Jame's mind was completely blown away by the weapon. Those curves, the colours of it, and the overall grace and beauty in the design caused him to be stunned.

Now it was Garnet's turn to show her weapon. She raised her hands as the gems glowed as she brought them lower in a swift motion then made them a fists. The gauntlets formed over them. They all impressed them, but he had to admit that Pearl's spear was his favorite out of the three. It looked swift and functional for a fight with immense numbers.

"Steven you said you are a crystal gem, so do you have a weapon?" he turned his head to his new friend. Steven looked at him, but it was hard to summon it. Maybe this would be practice for a real time that he'd need to use his mother's shield. Well he'd at have to least try to do it.

"I don't he can do it right now." Garnet put her hand on Steven's shoulder, there was no more gauntlet covering her hand.

"I can try to!" he exclaimed hoping off his seat and lifted his shirt to reveal gem as he strained to try and summon it. It didn't make sense, he could do it four times when they fought Peridot! Why couldn't he do it right now to show James?

"I don't think it's going to work right Steven." Pearl said telling to stop. Steven sighed. Yeah maybe it'd have to wait for another day to show him.

"Do you have any video games?" James asked trying to change the subject. Steven looked like he going to explode, or at least poop himself. It worked. Now he just looked really disappointed in himself.

"Yeah, you wanna go play some?" he asked. James nodded and Steven lead him up to his bedroom to play them with him.

"I might stay a few more days here, so can we maybe hang out tomorrow if I'm free?" James said in the middle of an intense two-player golfing battle. Steven, being the extrovert that he was, smiled at the idea of another day only filled with fun.

"Okay, maybe I can introduce you to some of my other friends!" this was exciting for the both of them. Getting to know new people was something James didn't get to do very often due to moving around a lot.

"And I'll bring more money tomorrow so I can buy us both our own doughnuts!" he laughed along with his friend. The next day would be as fun as it could be.

At the place they were staying at James sat with his parents smiling at his plans for the very next day. It was spaghetti for once in a lapis blue moon. He twirled his fork around and put the ball of meat of in his mouth. He chewed and decided to break the silence between them.

"Sho dawd, hoe hwas ore tay?" he asked his busy father through a mouthful of mushed up food. Papers were stacked up around his plate of barely touched food. His father looked up from one at his son. His hair was in a messy short ponytail and was wearing a black t-shirt. His square framed glasses were too shiny to see actual eyes, he polished them whenever he was stressed, and that was a lot.

"Don't talk with your mouth full. Now swallow and repeat what you just said to me young." he glared at his son sternly. The guy was overtired and didn't want even a single drop of tomato sauce or white flaky cheese on any of his papers. They were all way too important for even a single drop.

James swallowed then straightened his back. "So dad, how was your day?" he repeated without a mouthful of pasta. His dad kept the same expression though. It was always like that, and probably wouldn't change until the day that he died.

"We may have to stay for another week James. There's something here and I'm not giving up on it!" he exclaimed triumphantly. That was his dad alright. His mom sat down. Her hair was short and curly with an almost pink color to her hair. Her bright blue eyes looked down at James and smiled.

"Just try and bear with him for sweetie." she said softly. "It's not all that bad here anyway."

"Oh I will, and I've even already made a new friend already too!" he almost shouted. Then he scooped some spaghetti and chewed only a little before swallowing it. Now he was prepared to answer all of her question.

"Oh that's so great honey! Tell me about your new friend please." she looked at him. James felt that now wasn't the best time to tell them about his moms' since they may not understand them with all the weird stuff that Amethyst showed off. Like turning into a bird and a bunch of other things.

"His name is Steven, and he's really fun and even let me be player two when we played a video game! Also a video game! I met him when he gave me half a doughnut after he spilled my smoothie, then we talked and I went to his house for a while." he explained with a lot of hand gestures. His mom nodded during some of it two.

"He wants to show me around the rest of the town tomorrow, and I'm going to bring money to get us both doughnuts!" his plans were brilliant for the next day.

"It's wonderful that you're making friends here James, now I think that a toothbrush and pajamas are in order for you young mister. Some rest will help you be in a good mood for tomorrow." she said looking at his empty plate.

"Okay." he sigh-plied (Sighed and replied) to his mother.

But that night he just could not sleep a wink, he was too excited about the fact that he had actually played a real video game today! James lay there in bed starring at his thoughts about what was tomorrow going to be like. The doughnuts, the whole town and what it would look like, and of course maybe hanging out a little bit more with the crystal gems!

They were so awesome! He meant like Pearl's spear was amazing, Garnet's height was unreal, and Amethyst was just down right fun to hang out with! His day with Steven would be the best that there would be in his entire life!

It wasn't anything like his boring life. He was always moving around from place to place with his dad having a bunch of new projects in new places to check out for science stuff. It was always just moving, and since he didn't want his heart broken he didn't ever try and make new friends. Steven was his first real one, and he was probably the most interesting of any he'd meet in a lifetime. Maybe after college he'd move back there and get a job. The gems were just too interesting to move behind on his life, and Steven just had this sort of funky flow vibe coming off him. It was an awesome kind of vibe too.

Everyone should have that kind of vibe coming off of them he thought as his eyes shut slowly. But Steven was just his lucky friend that just so happened to have that vibe coming off of him.

It was bright and sunny the next day. A breeze swept through Beach city while change rolled and bounced around in his pocket. Shorts and the same T-shirt was worn, but now with a bag with swimming stuff since, ya know it was a beach. Light green flip flops flapped against the boardwalk as he started looking around for Steven.

But he wasn't to be found in the arcade, doughnut shop, fish stew pizza shop, or anywhere else for that matter. He decided to go in and get the doughnuts from yesterday.

"Hey um," he looked at the girl's nametage as she put the bag on the counter. "Sadie, have you happened to have seen Steven around?" he questioned her as he put the cash on the counter and grabbed the bag of pastries.

"Nope, he hasn't come by yet, but I'll tell you when he does, okay?" she smiled. He waved and decided to go to the source of Steven, his very own house.

He walked up the steps and opened the door and stepped in. it was unlocked, letting him in it. No one was home. He walked over to the counter, there was a note in somewhat messy handwriting. Probably from Steven he assumed to him self. He sat on the counter top, placed down the bag, and read the note.

 _Hey James I'm out on a mission! Be back soon._

 _Steven_

James sighed. How soon he thought. He now laid on the counter with his head hanging over the edge. This felt nice on his back but was extremely boring to keep like this for more than a minuet. He hoped off. Now what could he do to keep himself busy in the meantime? He walked up the stairs into Steven's room. The bed was messy.

Now he didn't think Steven would mind if he cleaned up just for him. It was something to do after all. James grinned before walking over to it like some sly killer to his very last victim alive. It was time to get made he thought.

"No that's not right." he put his hand on his chin to think of a better one. "Prepare to meet your maker! Much better indeed." he pounced onto it and got to work on his bed.

It was finished way too quickly. He sighed before flopping onto it. What else could he do now that it was finished cleaning Steven's bed? Then he hoped up he smiled. The bed was messy again, so now he had to re-stretch the corners. He did all four of them again and viewed over his work. It was all clean again. That felt nice to see it like that.

"Why can't you just be more messy Steven?" he asked him with no answer coming back from the air.

"Oh well that's because Pearl told me to clean this place up!" he imitated Steven. It didn't sound like him at all though. He frowned and felt like crying over his own boredom. "At least it's not spilled milk." James sniffed. "No I gotta be more tough, if Steven comes back through that door with the gems, then I can't be crying!" he told himself.

He looked at the dresser beside his bed and saw that Steven had left his phone behind, well who wouldn't? He grabbed it off it and went straight to the internet. He knew how to due to meeting a girl in another town that showed him how to use a phone.

The internet was an amazing place with places like TubeTube and plenty of other websites. But now he was just down right looking up "How to kill boredom." he found thousand upon thousands of results. None were interesting enough to do though. James turned off the phone and put it back on the dresser. Then he looked down and smiled.

"Here I go!" James shouted. He stepped back then walked over to the edge and jumped off. A loud poof was heard as he landed onto the couch from the upstairs of his room. It actually hurt a lot more than he expected from the large jump, but it was just so tempting. Now he why exactly Steven ever did something like what he had just done.

Either way he thought that it was still really fun while you were falling off and down. Then the portal glowed, and there was Steven along with the other Crystal gems. James ran over to them and Steven ran off the stairs to his new friend.

"Well you're here early." Garnet said as he took him to the counter where the doughnuts lie in wait to be eaten by two chums.

"What did you do to the couch?" Pearl went over and fixed it up back to it's original state.

"I jumped!" he said through a mouth of doughnut along with Steven chewing. Pearl gave him a perplexed look. This never happened when Steven jumped on it, there had to be more to that than what she was getting from that boy. "So you said you'd show me around, Amethyst brought something for you." he ran over to her and handed her a piece of cherry gum.

"What's this?" she asked. Beach city never really sold gum anywhere she'd ever hanged out at.

"Gum!" shouted Steven excitedly. He ran over to the both of them. James had saved a piece for him too. Steven eagerly took it and started chewing a lemon flavored piece.

"Ya chew it, but you don't swallow it." he explained as she popped the piece in her mouth then started chewing it. It was sweet like the lemon one as she kept on chewing her piece. James then popped a piece in his mouth and tarted chewing it. His was watermelon flavored.

"C'mon let's go!" they both headed off into the city.

"Since you got me that doughnut I decided to show you one of my favorite food places." it was the Friemen's fry shop. Steven and James walked up to the counter to see Peaty was there already at the counter.

"Sorry Steven, there's no bits until the end of the day." he said. That wasn't why he brought him here though.

"Hey Peaty this is James! Can we have some hash browns?" he put his money on the counter as Peaty went back to get said Hash browns. Soon they were prepared and the money was taken and the two munched on their morning treat. Grease coated their hands as they walked over to the ocean. They both stuck their hands in and jumped back due to the cold temperature of the water.

But at least the grease was off of their hands.

Mr. Smiley's funland, the arcade, fish stew pizza, the beach, an ice cream truck, the mini golfing place, all of them was a whole day spent together by the two boys. They laughed sitting on the beach at the sunset in swimming trunks. Apparently James had managed to obtain the same ones as Steven had. So they were both sitting there in yellow swim trunks.

"Thanks Steven for introducing me to all those people. This place is really nice." he said. "I bet that's because the gems do such a great job of protecting it." they both sat there watching the sun set upon the orange sparkling ocean of the city. A moment to behold indeed it was.

"No prob, Bob." he smiled back at him. James gave him an odd look.

"It's James." he replied. Why didn't anyone ever get that joke? "I should probably be getting home though. I'll find you tomorrow if I'm still here. Bye!" he waved heading off. Steven waved as well for a goodbye.

He entered through the door and headed straight for the kitchen. His mother was waiting there with a pizza box in hand. "So how was your day?" she asked.

"It was great, we went to the beach and everything!" he said sitting down at the table. His mom sat near him, but something was missing. "Hey where's dad?" he asked.

"Oh your father thinks he's found something finally today. But for now, is anyone up for some Fish stew pizza?" she grinned stetting down the box on the table.

James had to admit, it was probably one of the worst pizzas he had ever tasted. Fish wasn't supposed to be on there, but yet somehow it still was. He had choked it down just to spend more time with his mother talking. His dad might be a few more day figuring this out and doing all the science, which he'd later explain to James like he always did.

James looked at his small desk in his room. There was a magnifying glass and a few other thing lying on the table like a large hunk of salt. He sighed. Maybe science wasn't the life for him, he just wanted to be a normal kid. His parents never really sent him to school because of moving, but fortunately his mom was a great teacher. She had even divided his summer into smaller chunks then spread them through the year just for him.

He looked at the books on his dresser. They were all too adult looking for a kid at his age. He frowned looking down at his pajamas. White with red stripes they were. He was still a kid. Maybe that was why he liked Steven so much. He made him feel like just a normal kid for once in his young life.

It was foggy the next day. James slumped over to the big doughnut to find Steven getting something.

"Hey James." he smiled wearing his red sweater. James cracked a small smile in response. It just didn't feel like a happy day at all to him. So glum he was.

"Lemon smoothie, no sugar added." he moped putting some more change on the counter. Lars looked at him like he was crazy, he would never order something like that, and he was Lars for crying out loud! When the smoothie was sipped there was somehow no reaction from him.

"Are you alright?" Steven asked. James nodded. "So, do you want to come back to my place?" James nodded again. "Let's go then!" he smiled. They both walked to his house in complete silence for once, with Steven every so often trying and failing to start up a conversation.

The house had three vans parked in front of it. James looked up and gasped. Those were his Dad's science teams' vans!

"Steven we need to see what's going on!" he grabbed Steven by the arm and hurried the both of them up the wooden stairs and into the house. What was inside was shocking to them.

The gems looked like they were in attack mode, there were men in suits with devices, and le piece de resistance etaits James father. Everyone's eyes met everyone else eyes.

"James what are you doing here!" he shouted at his son. James couldn't believe this. It was his own father, and he looked like he was going to attack the gems! This couldn't be happening he thought to himself. No son would ever wish to see their father like this, about to attack the mothers of his new friend.

"How could you do this DAD!" he shouted.

"James you don't know what these things are!" he countered him.

"Yes I do! They're the Crystal Gems, and they protect the Earth!" he did know what they were. He had hung out with them for a day or so.

"Please don't do This!" Steven cried for the safety of the gems. He couldn't just resort to fighting right away. Then his gem started to glow a little. In the back of his mind James was excited to see Steven's weapon, but for now it was the matter at hand.

"Another one?" one of the men questioned.

"Steven run!" Garnet shouted. Steven didn't want to run though. He wanted to protect them. He had the shield.

But it didn't matter what he thought, because James grabbed his arm and ran with another one chasing them.

Down the stairs they went before quickly sliding underneath them. They waited, petrified. Boots were seen as James had hold his mouth shut. They waited till they both heard nothing to come out of there. They looked at the window. A puff of smoke apeared.

"They got poofed." tears came from Steven's eyes. James patted his back. They were both just as broken as each other at the moment.

"That was my dad." they both walked away from the house for safety. "We can't go back now."

"Where do you think he's taking them?" Steven asked quietly. Foggy wind swept by gently.

"To the research center." James replied. "But how do we get there."

"I know how." said a young determined Steven. The way there was pink and feline.


	2. Chapter 2

The Great Gem Escape

A portal appeared as they stepped off of lion. It looked like the hospital that Connie's mom worked at, but not as large. It was late at night. It took them a while with looking for lion, getting prepared, and then comforting each before doing this.

James was really upset. He blamed himself for the kidnapping, and he was scared of disobeying his father. It still took an entire of Steven talk to help him get past facing his dad. He had to do this. He had to help Steven get his moms back. He had to fix everything that he'd done wrong to his friends.

They were gems and Steven was a gem so he had to go. He had to help them this wasn't right. They shouldn't do these things to his friends, they were mean. He had to help the gems.

"Lion stay. If I don't come back you'll need to protect the Earth." he commanded. He didn't want him to get hurt as well. He was going to get them or their gems out with James, and no one else needed to get hurt. It wouldn't be right. James looked at Steven, Steven nodded back signaling that he was ready to do this dangerous mission. He hadn't done anything like this since the incident he liked to call Jailbreak.

"Let's do this." Said James as they both walked over to the building from Lion. It was time. He opened the door that was unlocked. _"We keep it open in case someone come in late James."_ He heard his father explain as they walked in quietly as they could. The tears in his eyes were blinked away. This wasn't right for his dad to do this. They were alive too, just like real humans.

"How do we find them?" whispered Steven to James. The hall was dark with lights on inside the labs that shun slightly through the windows in the doors. Everything was colourless in the night's shading of the vast hallway that they stood in. they walked over to the fist door.

"Climb on my back and see if anyone's in there." James looked at Steven. Steven nodded as James bent over and he stepped on top and looked through the window and squinted. No one was inside. He hoped off of James.

"All clear." he said as James opened the door. They entered the room. A counter full of tools and things that neither if them recognized. It gave both of them the creeps as they both shuttered. There were computers with words on screen and clipboards, papers were scattered all over. The two walked over to the table and looked all over.

A jar caught Steven's attention. Inside a pearl was contained. "Got Pearl!" he grabbed the jar and unscrewed before putting her in his pocket. One down, four to go.

"Let's move to another room." James hoped of a seat he was sitting on to look for them. Steven nodded. The two scurried out of the room and near the next door. James got down, and Steven got up. He jiggled the door handle.

"It's locked." he said.

"Then we move to the next one." James stood up. They headed to the next to find that one also locked. Fortunately the next one wasn't. They ran in with no hesitation. It was clean and neatly organized.

"Let's look for-" they heard the door open again as they both hid in a cupboard underneath the table. Steven looked at James and vice versa. They were both terrified. James saw some tape and quietly trying to make as little noise as possible took a few strips and put them over the line between the two doors. Steven gave him an odd look. James shrugged in response.

A second felt like an hour as time passed slowly. Steven and James had done the magic sausage thing, a silent thumb wrestle, and a bunch of other little things to pass the time. It wasn't enough though. The time passed more quickly though. That part worked.

James felt a sigh of relief come over him as the footstep noises got quiet. He pushed had on the cupboard doors and came crashing out with Steven following him.

"It's Amethyst!" Steven exclaimed. Her gem was next to a computer with wires attached to her gem by suction cups attached to the wires. Steven grabbed her and put it in his pocket. The computer started blinking numbers and stuff, so James grabbed a stack of paper and put the suction thins on it before running out of the room with Steven. They both closed the door and James to the other door and closed it.

"Just in case." he whispered. He ran over to the next door along with Steven. So many of them were locked. Locked door after, locked door. Finally they found one that wasn't locked and they entered swiftly. He saw someone in side and ducked behind the table. He peeked over it as the man was writing thing on papers. He saw a red gem and reached out and grabbed it. He handed it to Steven.

They looked at the guy. He had earbuds in his ears, so he didn't notice them when they took it. In his hands it started glowing. They both looked wide eyed at each other. This couldn't be good. Steven knew Ruby be mad at splitting them up.

She formed as the man looked up and a distressed look on his face formed. He was screwd. He stood up as she finished. She formed facing the man, and he was the first thing that Ruby saw. An angry look came over her face as she growled before jumping over the table. She ran across as her gauntlet formed and punched him right in the face. He flew back onto a wall unconscious.

She looked around. "Sapphire!" she called out. Steven jumped up and slapped his hand over her mouth.

"Shh, we'll find her." he reassured her taking his hand off of her mouth. Ruby looked down at her foot. There it was, it was a sapphire. Ruby picked it up and clutched it close to her chest.

"Good, we have them all, but where's Garnet?" James said.

"I am Garnet!" Ruby snapped jumping off the table. Steven climbed off. "Let's go!" she ran ahead of them. Steven and James both followed Ruby out of the building.

"James!" it was his dad. James turned and looked at him with tears in his eyes, he shook his head then just ran slamming the door behind him. They all jumped on Lion and a portal was formed going back into the house. Ruby held her sapphire even closer to her chest.

"Saffy?" she looked down at the blue gem. Then she glared looking closer, then she gasped. Ruby looked up at Steven and James. She took it over to Steven and shoved it right in his face. "You need to fix this!" she shouted at Steven.

"Fix what?" asked Steven taking the gem and examined it. It seamed normal enough just like a regular gem. Just a regular resting Sapphire, she'd come back to Ruby soon enough, then they'd be back as Garnet. Everything would be back to normal, but what would they do about James.

"It's chipped. They cut a piece off of her gem!" she shouted. Steven actually took the gem and licked it. They all looked at it, Ruby trying to look the closest at her gem.

"Why isn't it working!" she grabbed Steven by the shirt collar as Steven yelped out. James grabbed her arm and started tugging her arm.

"Put him down!" he shouted. Then both of Steven's pockets started glowing and Ruby put him down and he took all the gems out of his pockets as they both started reforming. They came back looking just the same as before.

"Hey Ruby how's it going!" Amethyst smiled, or at least forced a smile. Amethyst starred down at the gem she took back from Steven. "Uh, Ruby?"

"You did this to her!" she ran, grabbed James, pinned him on the wall, then summoned her Gauntlet. Pearl screeched as they all ran to her and tried to pull Ruby away from James.

"Ruby, calm down!" Pearl picked her up as she started screaming and kicking trying to get free from her grasp. "We'll get Sapphire back soon, she just needs to regenerate." she tried to calm her down, but Ruby was angry, angry to the point of not being able to calm down.

"She can't regenerate, a piece in her gem is MISSING!" she shouted. Pearl gasped and dropped Ruby onto the floor. Ruby dropped the sapphire and ran to the door that opened as she cried going into her red room.

She sobbed sitting on the floor up against the door. This couldn't happen to her. This was her laffy Saffy, she let her Saffy get hurt! "Why did I listen to you!" she cried.

Meanwhile someone was sitting on a chair checking out Keep Beach City Weird. Phoenix's-Crystal-LightSaber looked around. "I sense a disturbance in the force." they said. Then they shrugged. "Meh, probably the pizza in the oven."

"Oh Sapphire, why did you make me listen?" she sobbed.

 _Seeing that they had gotten both Amethyst and Pearls' gems, a bright light had enveloped Garner as Ruby and Sapphire fell to the ground and Ruby grabbed Sapphire's left hand with her right hand. The men got even closer as Ruby held Sapphire even closer to her body. Sapphire put her hand on Ruby's face._

" _Ruby, listen to me." she whispered._ _"We need to surrender, if they have they're hands full with us, then they might forget about Steven." Ruby looked at her and nodded. Sapphire let go as she saw her get dragged away as she felt herself get dragged away._

 _Then she saw Sapphire decided to retreat back into her gemstone. Ruby decided to do that as well, after all Sapphire was the one with future vision. This would work out, or at least she hopped it that it was a good future for them._

"Sapphire you lied to me!" she shouted. She did it all for Steven, she did it all for all of them."You were the one that got hurt."

Steven looked at the gem. It had been put in a nest of scarves with a warm light. Just like an egg, just like Pearl.

"So what do we do about her gem?" Pearl asked. "Should we go back and find the shard?" they all shrugged. None of them knew what to do about her gem. A shard was missing, none of them knew what to do if a shard was missing from a gem. They had seen cracked gem, Amethyst and Pearl had seen gems shattered, but non of them with a shard missing. Was it even fixable?

"Oh yeah, let's go back to the place where we were trapped in our gems and experimented on." Amethyst said sarcastically. Pearl mumbled something about her under her breath.

"We need to fix Sapphire." Steven added. "Ruby seams really upset." they all looked at the door. Nothing changed about the door, but they all knew that Ruby was in there. James was laying on the couch up in a ball. "James is too."

James wasn't listening to anything that they were saying. He was too wrapped up in his thoughts of guilt. He knew it was all his fault, Ruby should be upset with him. He didn't want to get off of the couch. He just kept on shaking his head. They all looked at him frowning.

"What are we going to do about James. He can't lay on the couch forever." Pearl said.

"Maybe he can sleep here tonight?" Steven looked up at her. Pearl looked at James, she sighed.

"Just for tonight." she looked down at Steven sternly with a finger up. "And besides, I think he won't get off the couch anyway."

"But what am I gonna do about my dad. He saw us escape. I looked him in the eyes." he sighed all curled up. Steven walked over to him and stared patting his back.

"It's okay, we'll figure something out, right?" he looked at the rest of them. They didn't know what to do about this situation. James couldn't go home, not with his dad like this. What would he do to him knowing that he knew the location of them? (which was just the house.) This felt hopeless.

Steven could only imagine how Ruby felt. This was Sapphire though.

Ruby looked up in the bubble room. There they all were. If only she had bubbled Sapphire's gem and transported it to this room, then she'd still be here. Sapphire was basically dead to Ruby. What were the chances of her coming back, to be fair. She had never seen a gem with a chip missing in it, so why should she ever assume that it was fixable?

There would be no more Garnet now. She'd never be the bigger gem, did that make Pearl the leader? That would be a horrible idea. Pearl didn't have the leadership skills that Garnet had while she was still performable.

"I'm so sorry for yelling at you, I really was being stupid." she referred to the Keystone Motel incident. She really was being stupid at then. She never admitted her real feelings to Sapphire about the indecent. She couldn't. She sat there sobbing.

"If I could begin to be,

half of what you think of me,

I could do anything,

I could even learn how to like you,

When I see the way you act,

Wondering when I'm coming back,

I could do about anything,

I could even learn how to love like you,

I always thought that I might be bad,

Now I know that it's true,

C'ause I think you're so good,

And I'm nothing like you." she collapsed down onto the floor crying in many angry sobs. She couldn't look at James right now, she didn't know if she'd ever be able to forgive him at all.

James had managed to get off the couch and was sitting on the beach getting his pants and sneakers soaked. Amethyst had come out multiple time and tried to cheer him up by shape shifting and stuff but it didn't work. He was still absolutely miserable about the whole thing, his mom probably knew about it due to his father coming home, maybe. This didn't seam like a night he would come home, there had been so much research lost due to the incident of the escape.

"Where's James?" Ruby had finally came out of her room, her head was hanging low and you couldn't see her face.

"He's on the beach." Steven replied. She walked outside and saw him sitting on the darkly sunset shore. She sat down beside him and looked up at the not so full moon by the sea. He scooted over, away from Ruby. Ruby looked at him. Her motherly instincts were kicking in form being Garnet with S-you know who, so she got closer. She was trying to not be angry, Sapphire wouldn't want her her to be angry. She'd try to be calm for this one.

"Uh, James," she looked at him. His head popped towards her, there were tears in his eyes. Now Ruby felt down right guilty about almost punching him in the face. At the same time she was glad that Pearl grabbed her. "I'm sorry." Ruby hated seeing people cry, and James was crying. They both turned they're heads looking back at the ocean.

"I wonder what they're saying." Pearl gazed out the window looking out if the window onto the beach. Steven came over to the window and looked out along with her. They were just sitting there. Amethyst sighed then came over right along with the rest of them. Steven looked back at Sapphire's gem in the scarf nest.

"Why don't you go ask them?" Steven asked with out thinking. He was looking at the gem and asked his question without thinking about it. The two gems gave him an odd look. He turned his head back to them, they both looked at him. His head went from side to side as he looked at the gems as they looked at him.

 _Ruby I'm ready to come back. I'm ready to be Garnet with you once again. I'm ready to regenerate. It's all blue in here, but I want to be out there with you, and Pearl, a-and Amethyst, and Steven. I saw this future within me, I saw me coming back. I feel myself begin to do so, but nothing's forming. Nothing's coming back. Why can't I regenerate!? Why is nothing happening? Did I ignore a possible future when I checked them? How could this happen! Ruby please help me!_

James sat by her. She was just gazing into the ocean as he looked at her. She was too deep into a gaze to pay attention. Tears dripped down her face a little bit. He scooted silently closer to her silently on the shore. Ruby then felt a tight grasp around her body. James was hugging her as they both sat there with the rest of gems watching as they both sat there weeping about both of their losses.

"Well gentlemen, we have lost a lot today." Jame's father said. The rest of the men and women gave each other all very worried looks. "Fortunately none of of you have lost any of your jobs, somehow that is." he muttered the very last part of that. Then he reached deep into his pocket then pulled out a large blue gem shard. "That's because we have this."


	3. Chapter 3

3: Problems and Pancakes

Ruby sat on the stool at the counter starring at Sapphire's gemstone. She was glum, she wanted to be angry though. What would Garnet do she wondered to herself? She had to admit it almost made her smile when she saw her all wrapped up in mittens and scarves. It was so lovingly typical of Steven to do for Sapphire's gemstone. Heart warming in fact. James sat by Steven and Steven sat by Ruby with Amethyst on the other side. Steven got off his stool seeing if the pancakes were ready to flip. They were. Amethyst had thought of the idea to use a flat baking fan since there were going to be so many.

As they flipped the smell filled the room along with a large sizzling sound from the raw mixture touching a piping hot surface. Amethyst and James took it in as Steven turned the stove off. The "pan" was already hot enough to cook the other sides to them.

None of them had really spoken to each other all throughout that morning, Ruby especially. She had watching her precious gem all night long and the morning, Steven had tried watching her from his bedroom but fell asleep. James had slept on the couch after falling asleep on the beach Ruby carried him inside. It was all that good a sleep though.

Pancakes plopped onto four plates as the syrup bottle was passed around. (Amethyst took the most syrup of them, but who wouldn't like syrup on pancakes.) Steven had even made a plate of them just for Ruby. He gently set it beside her elbow that was lying on the table resting her head.

"I'm not hungry." she replied grumpily. Steven sat back at his seat and took more bites of his own.

"Well then I guess they can be for Sapphire when she comes back!" he smiled, Ruby forced one to go with his. It was very sweet of him to do such a thing for her. But would Sapphire even eat them, maybe after they fused they'd both eat them together. It was pretty nice of him, he even put syrup on them as well for her.

Ruby sat there alone. What would Garnet do if she was here right now? Then she remembered when she split up once for their anniversary of staying as Garnet.

 _Ruby flipped the pancake. She put her heated up hand to it til it cooked to perfection, and then onto the plate. She took a knife and grinned, then the perfect shape was cut. She tried to do a fancy design with the syrup, but she thought that it ended up looking like a mess. She walked over to Sapphire with her abomination. She set it down in front of her._

" _Surprise." she smiled, it was shaped like a heart just for her. It wasn't really a surprise since Sapphire could see the future. "I guess not, really." she sighed._

 _Sapphire knew what Ruby was talking about, she smiled at the heart. "I also see a future where we eat these together." she got down to get another knife and fork. As she sat back up she gave Ruby a kiss of gratitude. They enjoyed it together, and when Pearl finally woke up they fused back without anyone seeing. More work needed to be done on the house for Steven._

A tear dripped onto the deep blue gemstone then froze. Ruby merely flicked it off if it. Then they heard a roar outside as they all went to check it out, James was in charge of the gemstone for a bit.

The fight wasn't one to be proud of. At the moment Ruby had a lot of emotional baggage that needed to be let out. She barely listened to anyone and just kept on punching the thing over and over. Eventually she punched it hard enough to get the gem out crack it. She huffed away as pearl bubbled it and sent it with all the other gems.

They all came back after quite some time as James was wearing mittens and holding her gem.

"Uh guys, we have a new problem."he said holding her gem. Ruby ran right over the fastest to it. His hands were covered in ice. They all looked at the counter. It was covered in ice as well as James's mittens, and it was spreading really quickly.

"Ruby what do we do?" exclaimed Pearl, it only made sense that Ruby would know since she was usually fused with her. Ruby didn't know what to do either. She took the gem right from James and held it tightly to her chest.

"I gotta go take this to my room!" she ran to the large door as it opened for her and she rushed right in. Pearl sighed and shook her head from side to side.

"Now how do we get these off of me, they're frozen to my hands and wrists!" James said. Pearl took a look at them, they had really froze on to them.

"I got this." Amethyst said walking over to him. She grabbed the two mittens on his hands and pulled as hard as she could. They went flying right off of his hands and landed hanging on Pearl's nose. Her face scrunched up in annoyance as Amethyst started laughing and pointing at the funny sight. Steven laughed a little bit along with her, it was pretty funny. (Amethyst thought anything involving Pearl's nose was funny.) 

"Amethyst!" Pearl growled at her taking it off of her nose and throwing it on the floor. She'd pick it up later for sure.

"Aw c'mon P! It was pretty funny!" she chuckled right back at Pearl. Steven smiled, it wasn't that big a deal. James was neutral about the whole thing, his wrists and fingers were still freezing cold. He rubbed them to get them warm, it took a bit of time to get them warm.

"When do you think Ruby will come out?" Steven looked at the door, that grabbed their attention as they all looked at it. Pearl bit her lip. None of them knew. They didn't know Ruby and Sapphire as well as they knew Garnet. A wave of guilt washed over Amethyst and Pearl, why didn't they get to know them better?


	4. Chapter 4

Still angry?

As they all sat at the counter Ruby entered with her chest puffed out and Sapphire's gem in her left hand. Everyone looked at her like she was crazy. Her eyes darted around the room looking at everyone.

"What up Rube?" Amethyst said viewing over her friend, Ruby looked straight up in her eyes. Amethyst was getting a little concerned as she saw that it looked like they were being sucked back into her head. "You okay?" she asked. A sizzling sound was heard and a little smoke was rising from the floor as Ruby looked at all of them.

"We need to discus what are we going to do with Sapphire's gem, it froze to my hand this morning." she looked at everyone, James could relate. Pearl was confused, did she really spend time with it last night in her room. "And some of my room." she added. "Most of my room." She sat on another stool and put down the gem. Burn marks were on the floor and Steven had had to sweep away the flies that went after the one day old pancakes. They weren't for them, they were for Ruby and Sapphire or Garnet.

"We could bubble it until we get the shard back." Steven suggested. Ruby looked like she was going to explode in fury but bit her tongue. How could he even think to treat Sapphire like some regular old gem monster and put her in a bubble! This was Sapphire they were talking about, his mom!

"But Steven, we have so many gems already in that room, she'd just get lost with all the other corrupted gems." Pearl reasoned. Steven sighed looking down at his half eaten plate of breakfast. Warm messy fried eggs, bacon, toast looked right back up at him. James had barely finished his extremely small plate and Amethyst had unfortunately also taken a bite of the plate with her meal. Pearl just had the usual, nothing. Ruby quickly went off outside without saying anything else.

They all looked out the window, there she was ranting to herself and leaving trails upon trails of glass near the shore. If it was a better time Steven would probably say something like; "Well it's not beach glass, but close enough." Right now he watched thinking that it was the Keystone motel all over again, only without a certain Pearl and Sapphire to rant on about to be mad at.

James sighed, he made Ruby angry like this. If it weren't for him Sapphire would probably still be here. And there she was, just heating up sand in anger. He frowned looking out into the ocean thinking about what Sapphire might look like. She'd have to cool glasses, have a star on her chest, shoulder pads, and be really short like Ruby, and of course she'd be blue. The ocean was vast, ans so was what Sapphire would look like.

"Hey um James," Steven looked at him, James looked back at Steven. "do you want to go out and um, go do some stuff." he suggested wanting to cheer him up. James hopped up the couch along with Steven as the two left. As they passed by Ruby Steven frowned as she heard her rant on something about bubbles, usually Garnet would ask them where their going or just use her future vision to see, but Ruby just ignored the two children. They ran off into town quickly.

Ruby watched them go off quietly. She couldn't yell at Steven and James. Sapphire wouldn't want her to yell. Garnet wouldn't do it, but Garnet wasn't here at the moment. She sat down on the sand as it felt hard on her butt. It was glass now due to heat. She mumbled something to herself angrily. She looked up at the house, she wanted to see what Amethyst and Pearl were doing. She walked up the stairs and stealthily looked in the slightly opened window.

"Amethyst what are we going to do?" Pearl said scrubbing a messy plate with the wrong side of the sponge on the wrong side much to her annoyance. Why wasn't it working, sponges were so complicated. Amethyst scrapped Steven's cold leftovers into her mouth and splashed it into the soapy water, accidentally soaking Pearl. Pearl shook her head angrily and clenched her fists.

"Oh Amethyst! Why you, you just!" she shouted, Ruby merely looked and listened on to the two. Jeez, was Pearl always this harsh on Amethyst when Garnet wasn't there?

"Sorry, I should just..." she miserably brushed her hair back going into her room. Pearl sighed then walked over to her and placed a hand on her shoulder. Amethyst turned around and looked up at her, Pearl looked back down at her somewhat comfortingly.

"It's okay you didn't mean to." she smiled. Be Garnet she repeated in her mind, be a leader. Ruby was too angry, Steven was still a kid, and Amethyst wasn't right, Pearl had to step up as a leader. (Plus she was the tallest) They both walked over to the sink and Pearl washed while Amethyst dried. Ruby gave a confused look to them.

"It's okay." Pearl said letting go, she'd just dry off. "We'll get Sapphire back, and then we'll have Garnet back. As Steven would say; we'll be a family again." Amethyst sort of giggled at the joke, it wasn't really like Steven at all but still felt like him in some way.

"Yeah, one big Family." she smiled drying her half broken plate. She convinced Pearl to keep it, it'd be in her room. There was silence between the two for minuets. "Hey um, uh Pear?."

"Yes Amethyst?" she looked from down at the sink to the fellow crystal gem. Amethyst had a deep look in her eyes.

"Did you ever think about what it'd be like if maybe one of us or Ruby got chipped instead of Sapphire?" she said sheepishly. Pearl had the urge to yell at her for thinking of such a question, but thought about what Garnet would do right now. She thought about it for quite some time, Amethyst was now embarrassed at what she had said. She was going to yell, wasn't she? It was the worst thing to say to her, it was a very mean question.

"I'd rather it'd be me. I'd give anything to have her back, she's the best of all us. Her future vision is so useful, she protected all of us so well during the war. I might have been Rose's confidante, but she had her vision. She saved me sometimes with it you know before you came." she remembered her, Sapphire, and the war. She wasn't like Garnet, she was like Pearl. Amethyst had tears in her eyes thinking about what it'd be like to just be there.

"Really?" she looked in awe at the idea of her future vision in the war. Amethyst was younger, she didn't know Sapphire or Ruby, she had only known Garnet.

Ruby's jaw dropped and tears boiled then steamed up in her eyes. She sniffed and wiped her eyes. She ran over to the door, opened it, and hugged Amethyst and Pearl tightly almost as she could, well Pearl's legs. "I love you guys so much." she said with tears in her face. "And Steven."

"Uh, Ruby, you're, ugh!" she choked as Ruby hugged her even tighter. Pearl sort of squatted and hugged her too. They all smiled. Ruby just wanted to stay in this position for all of eternity.

 _Lower class gems were in a hidden building on Homeworld, Ruby's gauntlet whacked someone in the face so hard, a poof was heard. The crowd cheered as a magnetite collected the gem off the ground. The gem fights, you and another gem just smacking each other for fun. She took it all in smiling, she loved it. The next round wasn't her's, it was two other peoples' turn._

" _Next up is Angle Quartz!" Zincon announced. She stepped back. Angle stepped out. She was big like a Quartz and her hair was short and white. Her rainbowy shimmering shirt was cut off at her stomach and she wore a short skirt and long thigh light gray boots. Her gem was on below her lip was clear and shiny._

" _Before I go out and beat the loser, I'd just like to say congrats to Ruby. Who knew someone so small could kick so much butt." her voice was smooth and somewhat like the voice of the soon to be famous Rose Quartz. Other gems applauded just like she wanted them to. She put a hand on her hip and let one hang off to the side. "So who am I fighting tonight?" she cracked her knuckles._

 _People in the crowd moved away as Ruby saw two gems carrying another smaller blue gem. She was fighting them and kicking to get away from them. They threw her down near Angle Quartz who looked at her._

" _We thought you'd like a practice round, got un of 'em off the street. Little miss high class." a Pink Sapphire snarled. (Pink sapphires are rubies that lack the stuff that makes them deep red making them pink.) Her hair was spiky and her outfit was punk and spiky. It was mostly black with light pink. Her gem was at her throat._

 _Sapphire looked up. She was afraid to face her, she wasn't all that strong. She stood up fiercely facing Angle. Angle summoned her weapon, it was a mace. Sapphire didn't summon her's though. She swung it, Sapphire dodged it. She wasn't strong, but she was fast and had her future vision._

 _After many swings Sapphire's foot caught onto her dress and she tripped, Angle took advantage with this. Sapphire went flying and then fell back down. Ruby ran out and slid in front of her as Angle was about to finish her. Angle growled at her, why would she do this?_

" _Get out of the way, shorty." she growled. Ruby stood her ground firmly and looked up at her glaring._

" _She's not going to do this alone!" she jumped summoning her weapon and punching Angle in the face. A gasp came through the crowd._

 _Now it was Angle, Ruby, and Sapphire all in a fight. Ruby was on Angel's shoulders and tying to hit her. "Ruby, to your left!" Sapphire shouted. Ruby swung herself to the left and punched. Sapphire kept on shouting and Ruby kept on punching Angle. Ruby then jumped off as the tower of a gem toppled to the ground with a slam then a poof. Pink Sapphire collected the gem. The night was over after that, but something even greater had started._


	5. Chapter 5

Why should I cry?

James looked out the window, it was a rainy day on the now muddy sand beach. The window was stained with water and blurred but you could still see the mud beach. Steven was beside him as Amethyst walked by and gave the two boys an odd look. "What'chya doing?" She cocked her head to the side walking closer to them. Silence was shared between the three.

"Do you think we'll be able to get Sapphire's gem shard back soon?" Steven sighed.

"Look Steven," James sighed. "we don't know where exactly my dad is right now, how are we even going to find him!" he waved his hands up as Steven was as quick as he could to dodge his flying arms. Steven stood up slowly looking at the scarf nest. It was ice covered and had even frozen a bit of the counter of the waffles. Pearl had taken Ruby on a morning practice mission to help her get into the swing of things without Sapphire or Garnet and to get her used to using only one gauntlet instead of two like usual.

"What if we can't find her gem piece?" Steven asked, in his mind he was still very hopeful that they would find the missing piece, but something told him that he should always consider the worst of what night just happen. It was still sad to think about being completely honest. This was his mom, although she was a mom he sort of didn't really know well. That was the one single problem with Garnet being a fusion, he still didn't really know Ruby or Sapphire all that well. To think that they were both his mom, but he didn't know them at all.

Steven sighed thinking. "We'll have a funeral for her." James said solemnly, Amethyst and Steven looked shocked at him. His eyes darted from person to crystal gem biting his bottom lip hard. "Don't tell Ruby."

Steven and Amethyst nodded looking at each, the three had to agree. "Yeah" "Okay." "That's fair." they all just shrugged to themselves.

"Pearl and Ruby should be back soon." Steven said looking at the clock. Pearl was always very precise when it came to her schedule, why would this time be any different?

Pearl looked down at Ruby, she was still rather angry, but this was still a good way for her to try and let out some of that rage on the inside. Unfortunately nothing could really ever let it all out with the whole thing with Sapphire's gemstone. Light flashed before the two as she saw that they were all back inside the house, there were flowers and a marker drawing of Sapphire and Steven had found his black sweaters for all of them to wear.

Pearl covered her mouth and Ruby's mouth and eyes went totally agape. "Steven, what's this!" she blurted out loud, they all turned their heads to the confused red gem.

"We're practicing, I mean what if, um." he was nervous. _Don't tell Ruby,_ well that was out of the water by now. You see, Steven had never really been to a funeral before so he just wanted to practice what it'd be like for if they ever really had to. At this point Amethyst was laughing a little with a covered mouth, not to be rude but the face Ruby was right now wearing was just way too priceless to stay silent at. James just felt really awkward at the moment, this wasn't going to end well for him was it. He didn't know why but he still felt as though Ruby was still holding that grudge against him, it was still his fault in his mind.

"What if we don't find it ever! Then what do we do?!" he shouted out. Ruby looked at him, Pearl read the room and stepped down placing a hand on each of the boy's shoulder.

"Steven James," oh boy she was really doing it she thought to herself! She was acting like Garnet! "we're going to find the piece, this is just a bit of a delay. We just need to keep working to find where it is then we'll get it back, you don't need to worry about having a funeral."

"Yes though it is was a lovely idea to pay your respects like this, it would've been nice to do something like this for Rose, she was so wonderful, a-and lovely, and-" she was getting lost in her memories.

"Enough!" Steven shouted running outside the house barely even closing the door. They were all shocked, this wasn't anything like Steven to do something like this. Pearl was starting to the door Ruby slid in front of her. "I should be the one to talk to him." she turned to the door and at this point no one stopping her from going outside.

Steven sat on the mud in the slightly lighter rain as Ruby looked down at him. It must be hard she thought shivering in the cold wet rain, it's not just you Steven buddy. She walked down the steps to him sighing as she sat down, she wished she hadn't picked a form with shorts at the moment. The mud was disgusting on her thighs. "Hey buddy."

He merely sniffed in response. "It's not your fault, the funeral-" she choked on saying that word. "it was a nice idea for you to do something like that." be like Sapphire, would she be smiling, was this what she'd say to do if she were here?

"It's not that," he looked at her soaked as he could be. "it's just that I can't cry. Everyone we knew was so wonderful, but I can't cry because I don't know them. My mom, and now Sapphire. I just want to be able to cry like the rest of you guys."

Ruby had no idea it was like this. He always felt like? She sighed. "Steven that's why we cry, I know you didn't know them, but you knew they were wonderful people and that's what make them sad." there were tears in both of their eyes. They both gave each other a weak smile.

"Really?" he starred into her eyes.

"Really, now let's get you back inside before you catch a cold or something."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: Connie, James, and Pearl, and Steven!

" C'mon P, it's my turn to go on a mission with Ruby! You got to go on one with her, why can't I!?" Amethyst argued at Pearl. Ruby looked up with a sour look on her face. They had been at this nearly all morning, Ruby was starting to get annoyed with her teammates. Amethyst really wanted to go on a mission with Ruby, but Pearl was as concerned as ever. Despite not having future vision like Sapphire, Ruby practically saw that part coming. Even if Pearl didn't know her, she most definitely knew Pearl.

"Because you two are disaster waiting to happen!" she squawked at her, Amethyst mimicked her mouth using a hand. Pearl fumed for a second. She wanted to look good around Ruby, every so often she'd forget that Ruby was technically Garnet. If that doesn't say how long they had been fused for then what did?

"A disaster, it's not like we're going to blow up or something." Amethyst joked giving a shrug.

"That's exactly what I'm afraid of!" Pearl exclaimed as she flung her arms up into the air. Ruby grumbled to herself as she turned her head to look at the counter. There was a brilliant red bubble with most of a blue gem in the inside, it made her a little angry. But at the same time she had to wonder what Sapphire was thinking in there.

Ruby I want to come back and fuse with you so much. But if I come back now I'd be a monster. I don't want to scare you, Steven, or James. Having him see a distorted Garnet would be awful. But thank you for rescuing me again, like that first night. It takes me back to when we went to the Earth colony. I remember when I found out about my guards I was so happy to see you again, but I couldn't show it you may have been arrested.

But now we're here, I guess such is fate, our fate. Our fate I soon hope comes together again.

Please Ruby be safe.

"Come on Amethyst, let's go." Ruby commanded as she walked over to the teleporter, technically I am still half of Garnet.

A flash of blue light sprung as it was Pearl alone in the house with the two boys on the beach. Connie called earlier saying she was coming over to the house.

Pearl looked out the window, what she was about to do might not be the best idea, but it'd be worth it. She only got to do it rarely, but each time was absolutely amazing.

She took one step back and inhaled slowly as her gem gave a soft blue glow. Soon the only thing touching the ground were her toes. Twirl after jump after pirouette, Pearl danced upon the house's wooden floor. As she finished she gave a small bow and looked up to see a holographic Rose Quartz smiling while giving a small applause.

"Pearl that was lovely!" Rose and Pearl's voice said in unison as Pearl gave a smile.

"Hey Steven, I- who's that?" James looked as Steven turned around to see Connie running towards the two boys. She came to a stop at the two as her and James's attention was solely focused on Connie for the moment. As the two met eyes, James blushed feeling a small knot in his stomach.

"Oh that's Connie. Hey Connie, this is James." Steven butted in to moment, but not intentionally though. No one could experience what James was experiencing right now.

" Hi James." She put a hand forward offering a handshake, James took it with a smile as he was lost in the warmth of her hand. Obviously he had felt it for too long as Connie made a slightly uncomfortable face. "Okay, you can let my hand go now." She said half smiling. Embarrassed James quickly put his hand back down to his side tightly.

Steven gave James and odd look but decided to just shrug it off for now. It was time for all of them to have some fun together. "So Connie, a few days ago I unlocked the multi-player setting on Mini Golf quest, you guys want to try it out?" Steven smiled.

"Sure sounds fun." She replied as James gave a nod in agreement with her. The three of them ran into the house immediately.

As soon as the door opened, Pearl jumped as the hologram poofed away from existence. Still on her tiptoes Pearl turned around to look three children coming in the house from outside. Fortunately for her, none of them had caught a glimpse of what she had done while she was alone in the house.

"Oh Steven, James, Connie! How are you?!" she said trying to act as if nothing had happened with a blushed on her face, and it was a very deep blue blush.

"We're fine, we just wanted to come in to play some Mini Golf quest. Have you ever played it?" James looked up at Pearl curiously.

Pearl gave a small grimace. "Uhm no I haven't." actually, she had sworn off video games all together after a certain incident involving an arcade unfolded. Amethyst on the other hand, just didn't really understand how they worked. Garnet was on the opposite side of the spectrum From Both Of them and really liked them, at one point one of Steven's smaller devices (and a few of the games for said device) had gone missing. To this day no one supposedly knew where it was…

"Woah, Steven how did you do that!?" Connie gazed at the screen wide-eyed. Steven had unlocked a secret level, on the inside of the windmill.

"I found a way to get in online. You just tilt your swing at the windmill's entrance. It's supposed to get you a second storyline." He explained as the screen loaded, it was taking a long time for it to load.

"What even is the plot of the game?" James looked as the loading screen seamed to only have loaded a little bit more than when he last looked up. He was laying on the bed as Steven and the other guest were sitting on the floor beside each other. Barely paying attention to the game, James stared at Connie. He watched as her and Steven laughed aloud, but to be honest James focused much more on Connie than Steven. He smiled as her laugh rang through his ears.

"Your swing." Steven said handing over the controller as player two little up on the screen. The three watched the swing with intensity. As the virtual ball was hit with the putter it bounced on the sides of the Crystal walls. A perfect hole in one came as the three cheered.

James put his left hand for Connie to give him a high five. As she reached up with her right arm there was a buzzing sound, and the only thing touching James's hand was plastic. The three looked at a now fuzzy TV, Connie's controller has been pulled out of it socket. Eyes met, this meant that all the progress of the game was now completely gone.


End file.
